Piers Plowman Tradition - 14th and 15th Centuries

14th and 15th Centuries

(Unless otherwise noted, dates given here refer to the year when the work was first written.)

Along with the writings of John Ball, the earliest contributions to the Piers Plowman tradition are extensively associated with the Lollards:

• Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, an anonymous, Lollard, alliterative, anticlerical, satirical poem written c. 1395 and printed in 1553 and 1561.
• The Plowman's Tale, also known as The Complaynte of the Ploughman, a Lollard poem written c. 1400 and printed by itself about 1533-1536 and again about 1548.
• The Praier and Complaynte of the Ploweman unto Christe, a Lollard prose tract and prayer for reform written about 1400, with some sources putting it as early as 1350 or as late as 1450, was printed twice, in about 1531 and 1532.
• Richard the Redeless and Mum and the Sothsegger, both written about 1405, are usually thought to be by the same author and perhaps two parts of a single work. W. W. Skeat attributed them to Langland himself.
• The Crowned King (1415)

Less directly and self-consciously evocative of Piers Plowman are:

• Jack Upland, a Lollard satire written about 1389-1396
• Responsiones ad Questiones LXV and Friar Daw's Reply, two anti-Lollard retorts to Jack Upland
• Upland's Rejoinder, a Lollard retort to Friar Daw's Reply
• I-blessyd Be Cristes Sonde, sometimes wrongly referred to as God Speed the Plough